It’s been such a long time since I played the original Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox that I almost forgot how good it is. Now, playing the sequel, I’m getting that old love and feeling back. At the Microsoft Spring… Continue Reading →

It’s been such a long time since I played the original Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox that I almost forgot how good it is. Now, playing the sequel, I’m getting that old love and feeling back.

At the Microsoft Spring Showcase, the team there let us pick from a couple of different costumes. Three of them will be available in a downloadable pack in July. They make the main character, Ryu Hayabusa, look very different. This isn’t some alternate-colored costume, with these new costumes, he looks totally different.

But the game begins with Ryu trying to save a special agent named Sonia from the Black Spider Ninja Clan. Our favorite ninja sees the damsel in distress and swoops down to save her. What follows is some of the silky smoothest action I’ve played in a while.

Players know that they can perform a hard and light attack with the X and Y button. They can jump with the A button and press B to throw stars. It takes a while to get adjusted to old moves like the wall walk and the using magic.

But once you have those down, the game becomes second nature, and this time around, the difficulty seems right. It’s not downright frustrating like the previous game, but there is enough challenge to keep you rewarded while not being overwhelmed.

The move is definitely a nod to those casual players who may want to finish the game and avoid flinging their controllers around.

The newest addition to the game seems to be these one-hit kills. It feels right and the slower showpiece animations are quick enough that they don’t get in the way of the gameplay. By pressing the Y button when an enemy is wounded, they can perform a quick decapitation or impalement.

Which reminds me, did I mention that this game was bloody? It’s undoubtedly going to earn every bit of that Mature-rating.

In previous iterations, players were never able to tell how much damage they were doing to an opponent. But this has changed as arms and legs being chopped off actually signals an enemies health. If a villain is running at you as a one-armed man, then you probably know he’s just about finished and susceptible to those Obliteration Techniques.

The only thing that bugged me was that jumping can still be a bit tricky and wall walking can be hard at times. I don’t if it’s something to get used to or what, but it bears some notice.

As for length, players can expect a 15 hour adventure depending on skill, according to Tomonobu Itagaki, the game’s designer, above. There will be unlockable items and a classic film filter that will let you play the game in black and white.

In the game’s chronology, Ninja Gaiden II happens right before the original NES trilogy and short after Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. The Xbox Ninja Gaiden could be considered the first in the series.